According to the lawsuit, Pfizer and India-based Ranbaxy kept other generic versions of Lipitor off the market until Nov. 30, 2011, which was almost two years after the original patent on the drug expired. The plaintiffs say the two pharmaceutical companies did this by obtaining a fraudulent patent, fabricating litigation, entering a price-fixing agreement to stall other cheaper generics from entering the market and entering agreements with pharmacy benefit managers that forced retailers to purchase more Lipitor.

The retailers say the scheme forced them to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars more” for the drug than they would have paid if they had been able to purchase generics.